Fallen For You and William Buick win the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, but the jockey was to lose out on top rider at the meeting in the final race. Photograph: David Davies/PA

A sense of anticlimax usually attends the naming of the top jockey at the end of a major race-meeting and it generally seems the least meaningful contest of the week. But anyone who imagines it doesn't matter to the jockeys themselves should have seen William Buick's face after he finished fourth in the Queen Alexandra Stakes on Saturday.

The race was won by Simenon, taking his jockey, Ryan Moore, to five successes at Royal Ascot, matching Buick's total. And, as the younger man knew immediately, Moore would be declared top jockey after a countback of placed horses. Had Buick finished third in that final race of the week, he would have had the better record.

"I was getting myself so revved up for it," he recalled here on Wednesday with a rueful smile. "People were telling me, you know? My agent was telling me, John [Gosden] was telling me, my Dad was saying, son, just keep focused and you can get this.

"Going into the last day, I was 4-11 to keep it and I thought that was very short because Ryan had better rides than me." Moore took the lead by winning on Sea Moon, then Buick wrested it back by landing an 18-runner handicap on Camborne, 35 minutes before Moore's coup de grace.

"You can't be disappointed with a week like that," is Buick's view of it now and it is not empty self-comforting. In his six-year career, he had previously ridden a total of just three Royal Ascot winners.

His fivesome last week netted £320,000 in prize money and he is particularly pleased with the hat-trick of winners he rode on Friday, including in the day's major race, the Coronation Stakes. "When you ride with confidence, you think you're King Kong, you know? It's just cloud nine."

Saturday may not have panned out as he would have wished but there were no hard feelings between him and Moore. The pair went out for dinner together outside Newmarket that evening and Moore told him the Royal Ascot title should, in all fairness, have been split between them.

It might have surprised any racegoer to see them socialising happily together after such a back-and-forth tussle. "It's a stressful week, you keep focused and then it's just nice on the Saturday night to sit down for a minute and relax," Buick said.

He and Moore may get along well but their on-track rivalry could become an enduring narrative in the sport, with the capacity to last long after Kieren Fallon, Frankie Dettori and Richard Hughes have quit the weighing room. It is a theme that may start this summer, when the two could find themselves duelling for the much grander title of champion jockey.

After a winner here on Wednesday, Buick was just eight behind Moore, well clear of the third-placed Hughes and with the chance to improve his position at Kempton on Wednesday night. It is the first time he has been so obviously in the hunt at this stage of the season and, although he is naturally cagey about expressing ambition, as almost all jockeys are, he does not deny that it is in his thoughts.

"I'm riding as much as I can, as many winners as I can and trying my best. My agent is certainly trying his best. We'll see where we end up. I'm 23, still learning about the game, there's a natural progression, you know?

"I've got a lot of nice horses to ride and a very good working relationship with John Gosden. I've learned a lot over the past couple of years. He's a fantastic man to ride for because he gives you confidence. I couldn't be happier with where I am.

"From now onwards, it's important years for me. You always need to step up on what you've done. You can never look back and think, I've done enough."

He refers once more to Moore foiling his hopes in the last race at Royal Ascot. "It just shows, you can never sit back and relax. You have to always be on your game, trying to improve yourself."